LYL Radio is an independent live webradio with physical studios broadcasting from Bistrot Senior in Lyon, Diznord in Paris and La Brasserie Atlas in Brussels with tangible contributors from all around the globe.
For a year now, I have been one of those contributors. My show is called Les Choses, in reference to the novel by Georges Perec and each occurrence is linked to… a thing.
Theme after theme, chose après chose, the idea is to sketch sonic landscapes without limits of style — exploring the interminglings between literature, music and sounds according to a certain sensitivity.
Episode 1 : La musique des choses inanimées
« Even inanimate things have their music », wrote the Reverend Simeon Pease Cheney. In this mix inspired by Pascal Quignard’s superb book Dans ce jardin qu’on aimait, we proposed a listening session highlighting the music of things that are apparently lifeless.
Starring: Saturn, the washing machine and its maritime symphony, the bathtub and its litany sung by sirens from beyond, a pond in the middle of a rave, and the cold sound of the drops from a leaky faucet resonating in a watering can.
Episode 2 : La musique des mauvaises herbes
This mix is inspired by Wolfgang Tillmans’ photo Weed 2014, an incredible 4 meter high image of a weed, splendid, enhanced by the light and the composition. This image underlines the subjectivity of the definition of what is beautiful, what is good, what is to be admired or not. Wild herbs have not always been considered undesirable, in the past they were seen as charming, useful, virtuous. In this mix, I only used the « weeds » of my collection — pieces that I listened to too much, that I liked too much, that I always found a little strange, of which I am tired, trying to see them in a new light.
Episode 3 : La musique de la nostalgie de la saison qui vient de s’écouler
« L’étymologie du mot [nagori] se rapporte à nami-nokori, « reste des vagues », qui désigne l’empreinte laissée par les vagues après qu’elles se sont retirées de la plage. Cela comprend à la fois la trace des vagues, ces sillons immatériels dessinés par les vagues sur le sable, et les algues, coquillages, morceaux de bois et galets abandonnés sur leur passage ». Nagori evokes both a nostalgia on our part, for something that is leaving us or that we are leaving, and for something that slightly shifts the season as if this very thing (for example flowers, snow) was leaving the world and the season which is hers against its will. This mix is therefore inspired by this beautiful notion on which Ryoko Sekiguchi writes in his superb eponymous book. He therefore speaks of past times, of seasons, of fragility, of nostalgia, expressed with a particular accent on all kinds of Japanese music.
Episode 4 : La musique de la fête qui nous manque
« C’était le sentiment de la fête, l’ivresse de la liesse collective, le mystère de la dissolution de l’individu dans la foule, de l’union mystique à travers la joie partagée ». This mix is simply inspired by the idea of the party here described in Herman Hesse’s book ‘The Steppenwolf’. It is about the club and the energy of the crowd that we miss so much.
Episode 5 : La musique oubliée, que l’on a jamais entendue
« Sauver quelque chose du temps où l’on ne sera plus jamais ». This set is inspired by forgotten music, music that we have never heard, that we reconstruct from remains: bird bones and carved stones dating from the Paleolithic found in German caves, a piece of papyrus representing a musical notation discovered in the « bin » of the Louvre reserves… This set is about time and about what remains. This was my favorite of the season!
Episode 6 : Les choses du réconfort
When everything goes wrong, going back to basics is often necessary. Choosing the things that make us feel at home, and coming back to it. Sometimes less for the thing itself than for the emotion it invokes. Special thanks to Irene Polimeridis, a friend who definitely inspires me to take comfort. As you may have gathered, things of comfort is the theme of this episode.
Episode 7 : Les pierres de rêve
In China, there are works of a particular nature called dreamstones. These are blocks of rock inside which landscapes, mountains, clouds, lakes, have emerged spontaneously in the stone over time. The artist is the one who goes into the mountain, slices a rock, discovers this natural painting, is moved by it, cuts out a piece of it, gives it a title. The artist can be the one who shows what has moved him or her, what has upset him or her. The sharing of an emotion through space and time, to allow one to appropriate the world. This mix is a reflection on the approach of a dj, which is similar to that of the artist collector, and was inspired by the atmosphere of my dreams and the strange coincidences I have experienced recently.
coline cornélis 